Category Archives: Swiss Arms

Swiss Arms 1911A1 Part 3 Part 2 Part 1

From John Moses Browning’s first design to the original

Model 1911 the future was already written

By Dennis Adler

I rarely go off on a rant about fit and finish, but I am at a loss for any reason companies like Swiss Arms, Tanfoglio, and other major manufacturers can’t see the logic (or the consumer demand) for a nickel plated 1911A1 model. They have the features right and the finish wrong. We all know you can’t get a consistent gun blue finish on an alloy (aluminum) pistol, but you can get an excellent nickel finish. The WWII era 1911A1 at right has a factory nickel finish. Look how much better this is than the modern Cerakote-like finish on the Swiss Arms model. 

Authenticity is something that so many airgun enthusiasts demand, that I am often amazed by how few manufacturers acknowledge this segment of the airgun marketplace. Granted most CO2 air pistols are in the $100 to $200 price range, with some very nice examples hovering at around $80 (retail or discounted), so it is understandable from a marketing perspective that some corners are going to be cut. Just when you begin to accept that reality, someone comes along and proves that “it just ain’t so” with a model like the nickel plated Umarex Colt Peacemakers. Why nickel? Because an authentically blued model just isn’t a practical option, you can’t really blue an alloy pistol to look the same as bluing on steel. You can come close but not perfect. This gives us antiqued finishes (weathered) as an option and that has worked well on many pistols, Peacemakers, the Broomhandle Mauser, and others, some as special limited editions, but the obvious option manufacturers could pursue with many blowback action CO2 models that just don’t look right with a modern matte finish, like the Swiss Arms 1911A1, is to forego modern finishes on CO2 versions of guns that were originally built in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries and simply put them out with nickel finishes. Even Colt’s offered nickel finishes on semi-autos as far back as the early 1900s (1908 for hammerless .25 ACP, .32 and .380 ACP models and 1935 for the Model 1911A1). So this begs the question, why can’t Swiss Arms and Tanfoglio 1911A1 models (pretty much the same guns with different brand name licensing) turn out a nickel plated version that would look like a proper period pistol, even if they still had their brand names and Warning information on the slide? It is understandable that only Umarex can use the Colt name, but let us not forget that during WWI and WWII the 1911/1911A1 was also manufactured by other companies like Remington-UMC, Ithaca, Remington Rand, US&S Co., Springfield Armory and even the Singer Sewing Machine Co. It is the design and finish that matter not the name on the slide. Swiss Arms and Tanfoglio could and should offer the 1911A1 style CO2 model with a nickel finish. read more

Swiss Arms 1911A1 Part 2 Part 1 Part 3

From John Moses Browning’s first design to the original

Model 1911 the future was already written

By Dennis Adler

A somewhat modern Cerakote-like finish on the Swiss Arms 1911A1 isn’t quite right, but then again neither is the big Swiss Arms logo on the slide, but if you look at the balance of the pistol it is about as close to a c.1924 Model 1911A1 (Transitional Model) as an air pistol can get. The 1911A1 is shown with an original lanyard and a World War Supply reproduction of the Model JT&L 1917 military holster, leather belt and dual magazine pouch for the Model 1911.

Swiss Arms introduced its 1911A1 (which they simply refer to as a 1911 even though it is the early 1911A1 configuration) several years ago, but it has not received the degree of attention the Swiss Arms 1911 Rail Guns get because they are the more popular 1911 variants. Swiss Arms, which licenses its name to the 1911 line (and I’ll explain why shortly), is a very old company, but you might not recognize it until you know that prior to 2000, Swiss Arms was Sig Arms, and is now part of a larger conglomerate that includes independently operated Sig Sauer GmbH, Mauser, J.P. Sauer & Sohn GmbH, Sig Sauer, Inc. (in the U.S.) and Swiss Arms, among other companies. The Swiss Arms name on a 1911 air pistol is equivalent to the Sig Sauer name on a 1911, and Sig Sauer makes some of the finest centerfire 1911 models in the world (over 20 different models) including the new “We the People”1911 in .45 ACP and new blowback action .177 caliber version, which we will be unveiling in Airgun Experience next week! read more

Swiss Arms 1911A1 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

From John Moses Browning’s first design to the original

Model 1911 the future was already written

By Dennis Adler

“The Board recommends that the Colt Caliber .45 Automatic Pistol of the design submitted to the Board for tests be adopted for use by foot and mounted troops in the military service in consequence of its marked superiority to the present service revolvers, and to any pistol, of its extreme reliability and endurance, of its ease of disassembly, of its accuracy and of its fulfillment of all essential requirements.”                      

– U.S. Ordnance Department Board of Officers report, March 20, 1911  read more